News

Summerland Football Club Hero of August: Michelle Mellier

October 10, 2018

Belsouth Football Club’s Michelle Mellier has been recognised and awarded the Summerland Football Club Hero of the Month award for August for her exceptional contribution to the club and her work in organising the annual Belsouth ‘Pink Day’.

Mellier’s role at Belsouth is fairly simple: jack of all trades, master of many. Her primary role is to organise merchandise for the club, all the non-playing kit and has set up an online shop for the club to make selling their items easier.

As well as the above, Mellier attends all committee meetings, organises venues for all club meetings and coordinates the organisation of celebrations and club functions.

But the biggest feather in Mellier’s hat each year is the annual Belsouth Pink Day, where the club bands together to turn the Murranji Street fields pink for a Saturday to raise money to fight breast cancer.

This year was bigger and better than ever, with the nearby Jamison centre turning pink in support as well, largely thanks to the work of Michelle and others at the club.

“Myself and Andrew did a lot of the preparation work, between the two of us” she said.

“I did all the ordering of the pink shorts for everyone to wear, from the Aldi Miniroos all the way through to our Men’s and Women’s state league players.

“We also ordered extra stock to raise funds on the day; things like shoelaces, pink socks and I put together a playlist of music for us to pump out on the day.”

Mellier’s lounge room was a sea of pink ahead of the weekend as she packaged up uniforms and merchandise for teams in a mammoth effort.

“I put together every single pack, so there must have been 80 bags worth of shorts that I bagged up for different teams, so my loungeroom was pretty pink for quite a while,” she said.

“I spent many hours on the computer as well.

“It’s all about emailing and communicating and getting the message through to the whole club.”

Mellier said that while organising the day was a lot of work, it was made worthwhile by the generosity of attendees, the impact of the day and by seeing the enjoyment of everyone.

“The attitude of everybody was brilliant, and hearing so many thankyous along the way from parents and others really was great,” she said.

“Organising the pink day has certainly made me a bit more well known amongst parents and coaches and it’s great to receive that support so I really try and recognise and thank them when I can.”

The award came as a shock to Mellier, but she did admit it was nice to receive the recognition.

“It’s awesome. Every week I feel wanted and needed at the club, but an extra little bit of recognition is really nice to get,” she said.

The 2018 Belsouth Pink day raised $20,000 towards Breast Cancer research and support.